The present invention relates generally to railroad hump yards and, more specifically, to the monitoring and management of a railroad hump yard.
Railroads use hump yards to marshal trains. The hump yard basically provides a switch point where a car can be attached to one of many trains. A string of cars is pushed up an incline by a switcher locomotive. When the car reaches the crest of the incline or hump, the car is released from the string and rolls down the hump to pick up speed. Part way down the hill or hump, the car will encounter a retarding device that will slow the car to the proper speed. The ideal speed represents just enough energy to cause the couplers of the mating cars to engage, but no more. The car will also encounter a series of switches to direct the car to the appropriate train. Any excess speed or energy as the car couples to the train will be transferred to the car and lading. The retarding devices and the switches are generally controlled remotely from a hump yard tower.
Also, in the hump or other yards, the locomotive may be controlled from a remote location by an operator on the ground. The remote control locomotive (RCL) systems usually include an RCL device carried by the operator. In the industry, these are known as “belt packs.” The location of the RCL operator is important to the management of the yard, as well as the control signals that are sent to the locomotive. From the ground perspective, the RCL operator does not always have an appropriate perspective of the total layout of the yard, much less the total train. Also, since he is not on the train, he cannot sense the forces in the train by the seat of his pants, as most well-trained over the road operators can.
The present invention is a method of monitoring a railroad hump yard, including storing a profile of the hump yard. The commands sent to one or more of the retarding devices and track switches are determined. The telemetry of a car at at least one point after release over the hump is obtained. Finally, the telemetry of the car for the remainder of the path in the hump yard is calculated. The telemetry includes one or more of images, speed, acceleration and location of the car. The telemetry may be obtained from one or more of the car, a locomotive, an RCL device and track side sensors. The calculated telemetry of the car over the path in the hump yard may be displayed real time or may be stored and subsequently displayed.
If stored and subsequently displayed in a playback mode, one or more of the commands can be modified and the telemetry of the car for the remainder of the path recalculated. These results may be displayed. Also, instead of changing the commands, the telemetry of the car may be changed in the playback mode and the resulting telemetry recalculated and displayed. Also, in the playback mode, the telemetry of the locomotive which pushes the car over the hump to produce the modified telemetry of the car may be determined.
The present method may be performed at one or more of a control station at the hump yard, on an RCL device, or on the locomotive pushing the car at the hump. The calculated telemetry of the car may also be compared against a pre-determined telemetry, and a variance report may be produced.
For complete monitoring of the railroad yard, the location of an RCL device is obtained. The location of the RCL device is correlated and stored with the calculated telemetry of the car. This stored information may also be time-stamped. The time-stamped, stored data may also be correlated with time-stamped video of the yard. This provides a complete correlated database for management and analysis of, for example, accidents.
A software capable of being modified to perform this method is available in the LEADER product available from New York Air Brake Corporation.
An improved portable RCL device capable of use in this invention and others includes an operator input for generating locomotive commands and a transceiver for transmitting locomotive commands to a locomotive. It also includes a display and a data base of at least a track profile. A program on the device determines and drives the display to show the location of the locomotive on the track. The program also determines and drives the display to show the location and forces in the train, including the locomotive. The transceiver receives and provides locomotive telemetry to the program. The telemetry of the locomotive includes global positioning data. The device may also include a global positioning system (GPS) communicating with the program. When the transceiver receives and provides locomotive telemetry from other transmitters to the program, the program drives the display to show the location of other transmitters. The information received and determined by the portable RCL device is stored thereon for playback on the device or for transmission to a central base to be used in playback or for analysis.
These and other aspects of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention, when considered in conjunction with accompanying drawings.